LICHALP

Lepra dactylina (Ach.) Hafellner

Syn.: Lichen dactylinus Ach., Ochrolechia dactylina (Ach.) S.Y. Kondr., Lökös & Hur, Pertusaria dactylina (Ach.) Nyl.

Lichenised.

Substrate: siliceous rocks, acidic soil (mostly on siliceous substrata)

Altitudinal distribution: alpine belt (potential vegetation: treeless Alpine grasslands and tundras, to the lower limit of perennial snow and the equilibrium line of glaciers)

Note: a species with a more or less white thallus and tall isidia, medulla Pd+ yellow turning to orange-red (fumarprotocertaric acid), verrucae in which the lecanorate ascomata show flesh-coloured to dark-brown immersed discs, 1-spored asci, and huge ascospores (100-250 × 50-110 μm) with an unzoned wall; mostly on detritus and mosses, rarely directly on soil or siliceous rock in tundra vegetation; circumpolar in the Arctic, scattered further south in the mountains, e.g. in Scotland, with a few records from Switzerland and Austria, some of which require confirmation.